A Concert at "Carnegie Cave"

How was everyone's weekend?  Mine was about as close to perfect as I could imagine.

Friday was so incredibly nice that I couldn't resist taking a couple of hours of vacation time to leave work early and take Elvis to the dog park.  The sun was shining, it was just warm enough that I didn't need a jacket, and there were lots of dogs there for Elvis to play with.  This particular dog park sits on top of a hill and the view is amazing:

The next day, we got up early and went to New York City for the 12:30 show of Jim Henson's Musical Worlds.  I grossly overestimated how bad traffic would be going through the Lincoln Tunnel on a Saturday morning, so we had enough time to wander around Central Park for a bit before the show.

 When we arrived at Carnegie Hall around noon, this sight made me feel positively giddy:

The show was absolutely amazing.  I had to fight back tears when the New York Pops opened with a medley of the themes from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock.  I got chills when the entire audience joined in the clapping parts of "Fraggle Rock."  

I really enjoyed the way they integrated the Fraggles into the show.  Uncle Traveling Matt (Dave Goelz) was taking Red (Karen Prell) and Wembley (Steve Whitmire, who I didn't realize would be there!) on a tour of Outer Space.  According to Traveling Matt, "Carnegie Cave" was a Doozer contruction that was completed six weeks ago, and was meant to me a summer home for Ma and Pa Gorg.  They sang a medley of songs that included two of my all-time favorites, "Follow Me" and "Let Me Be Your Song."  I may have teared up a bit. 

Unfortunately, from our seats in the second tier I wasn't able to get particularly good shots of the Fraggle Rock, Emmet Otter or Sesame Street characters, so I won't bother sharing them here.  But I did get a fairly good shot of the Muppets, along with John Tartaglia (he's the one in the green pants) and a bunch of the human members of the Sesame Street cast:

And here's a shot of the Muppet performers during the curtain call:



Oh, and remember when I posted video of the performance of "Just One Person" from Jim Henson's memorial service? 

Well, they performed it on Saturday!  I missed the first couple of verses because as soon as they started singing, I started crying, and it took me a moment to compose myself. ;-)

Between February's Pete and Pete cast reunion and this past weekend's Muppet performance at Carnegie Hall, I don't think I've ever been so grateful to live just a short drive away from New York City.  2012 definitely seems to be shaping up to be the year of once-in-a-lifetime chances to revisit everything I loved about my childhood!  Maybe this means they'll finally release Salute Your Shorts on DVD??